social networking

The Facebook study conducted a few years back that has so many riled up has finally drawn a response from the company itself. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has spoken out about the “experiment”. Apologizing for the “poor communication” of the program, which lasted for one week in 2012.

Do you know what Orkut is? Back in 2004, Orkut was created by Google as a social network before "social networking" was a prevalent term. In it, users were able to connect with others, converse, and play games. Ten years later, Google has decided that in light of their other, more popular social networks taking off, Orkut will be cut.

Facebook is, unsurprisingly, embroiled in yet another scandal. Surprisingly, it isn't directly related to privacy but comes quite close. The social networking giant has been revealed to have manipulated their news feed ever so slightly in order to see the effects on the moods of its users. Sounds almost harmless until you learn that the findings were recently published in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper.

Facebook is the latest tech company to reveal its diversity numbers, and in the report we see a familiar picture: a workforce composed primarily of white males, with there being some categories where the numbers even out into a somewhat more diverse picture. Said the social network today, "As these numbers show, we have more work to do -- a lot more."

Facebook is looking to connect as much of the world as possible, and that includes emerging markets where connectivity and access to hardware is still in its infancy stage. To make sure these markets have access to the social network, Facebook rounded up some of its team and took a trip to Africa.

Facebook Slingshot, the social network's stab back at Snapchat, has launched: an ephemeral photo-sharing app which demands social interaction if users actually want to see each other's pictures or video. Like Snapchat, Slingshot doesn't save images but instead only makes them visible for a limited period of time; however, rather than just tapping to view received content, to "unlock" it users will need to share something back - or "sling" it, in Slingshot parlance - first.

Snapchat may be best known for making sharing saucy photos with a friend quietly straightforward, but the app has ambitions to collaboratively document events based on who's there with Our Story. Building on My Story, the shared personal narratives built up of photos, text, and video that any Snapchatter can create, Our Story centers on an event not an individual - such as a concert or a sports game - with a shared media pool.

Much in the same way you can't shout fire! in a crowded theater, the Supreme Court is looking into whether it's okay to shout murder! or any other number of threats on your social networking accounts. In doing so, it is taking on the case of Anthony Elonis, who was arrested a handful of years ago for making threats on Facebook.

The Facebook iPad app has been given a revamp, though it's around the edges where the social network has focused most of its attention this time around. Flip the tablet into landscape orientation and a new column on the right shows up, which Facebook intends to use to turn the app into more of a content discovery and multiplayer gaming hub.

Iraq has followed in the footsteps of some of its nearby neighbors, putting a blanket ban on all major social networking websites in a bid to prevent possible political uprising. Reports are coming in saying Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google have all been blocked.